


severance

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Eye Trauma, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Major Character Injury, Sorry Keith, another oneshot of me hurting keith yes but, this is a oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-03 02:21:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11522517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It didn’t hurt when the eye was cut free from Keith’s socket. What did hurt, was the metal continuing through his face.





	severance

Haggar had apparently fancied herself a fleet. With Zarkon out of commission, it was up to Haggar to set up to the plate, but Keith’s mental image of Haggar was more… removed. She was someone who wasn't directly involed. He figured that she stayed in the shadows, doing Zarkon’s dirty work as he handled things upfront.

Not true. As it turns out, Haggar was completely willing to shred anyone’s shit. This wasn’t even a matter of _needing_ to; Haggar chased down the paladins like it was merely a fun game of cat-and-mouse, as though she was _bored_ in doing so. On the other side of the fight, he couldn’t see her nor her face, but in Keith's mind it was all too probable she had been petting the chair with an uninterested grimace as she watched the fight.

Over the intercom, Lance – who had been dodging one ship hot on his trail after another – shouted, “It’s like she’s waiting for us to do something!”

Which was likely, to say the least, given the circumstances. Haggar was up close and personal after all, dragging her and her ships here, but there was an air of – not hesitation, nor waiting. She was moving her ships in an extremely deliberate way, in order get he and his team to do something she wanted.

“I think we should bail at this point, we need to be further back,” Hunk said. Throughout the fight, the Yellow Lion was either chasing the Blue Lion or the ships following Lance, whichever was closer. The Galra fleet had quickly closed the distance from Black and Green from Blue and Yellow; Pidge and Keith couldn’t very well leave the other two to the wolves, but being so bunched together wasn’t exactly ideal either.

Keith took a moment to breathe, to tune out the explosions on either side of him. Before they jumped, Keith had to think. _Patience yields focus_ , he reminded himself.

“Princess, I agree with Hunk.”

That there had been his downfall.

Allura nodded to his request, she proceeded to place her palms to instigate the wormhole’s opening. From previous experience, Keith knew that it would take a few seconds for the wormhole to activate, some more for the paladins to get there. That was plenty of time for Haggar.

The ship that Haggar was actually _on_ was practically begging to be shot. If it wasn’t for the swarm of ships that kept her covered in every direction then it would have been easy. Haggar’s ship had an emblem on it, like a bullseye, the ship was the biggest out of the fleet. Thus, Keith was well aware it was her who shot him down, seeing the ship illuminate on each side, splitting itself apart like a mouth.

The last words Keith heard before it happened was Lance asking, “What is _that_?”

The Black Lion smashed into itself. The blast from Haggar's battleship shattered the glass on the outside and let the glass cut its insides. Keith immediately made a motion for the controls just as the metal boards above him were crushed. They moved in a peculiar way; into each other, into a thin piece, then went downwards further in the Black Lion.

It didn’t hurt when the eye was cut from Keith’s socket. What did hurt, was the metal continuing through his face. Apparently, Haggar's target wasn’t _just_ his eye; it continued in his skin until it met something that kept the metal momentarily in place. Bone, maybe. Whatever it was, Keith had his life to thank for it. 

Much to his own disgust, Keith wailed. Wailed like a toddler, the tears in his remaining eye hot and wet.

Keith felt the slime on his face, realized it was his eye wiggling out of place. He squeezed his face _down_ , to keep the rest of his tears from falling; the jutting piece of the Black Lion kept a slit of his socket ajar, but otherwise, the shutting of his socket crushed the rest of the eye that remained. When Keith very quickly opened his eyes, he looked down to see that the bits and pieces fell off his face in chunks.

Miraculously, his helmet stayed on through the collision. Without Keith noticing, his hearing went out; it felt like a burning wire had been run through his skull when Pidge’s voice came through to the tune of the Black Lion’s sirens blaring. With nothing to fear besides the jab of the metal keeping it slightly open, Keith closed his eyes.

He was not interested in shutting down here. Even though as every moment passed, Keith felt as though his mind was ejecting itself out of his skin. No; he wasn’t overloaded, he listened to Pidge. Initially, static got in the way. The interior of the Black Lion was so loud, with the sirens, his teammate’s collective screaming, the buzz of electricity. Finally –

“It’s not a clean cut! He’s not going to fall out of the Black Lion!”

Fall _out_ of it? The ceiling above him was crushed into itself. Not to mention the gravity was still…

It was off. Of course, the impact alone would have been enough for the Black Lion to shut down. Keith was only being kept in his seat by the long thing of metal running in his face. If he managed to get his partially smashed helmet off, Keith could wiggle himself free.

He could no longer hear the other paladins.

Glass edged his face as his hands pried the helmet off. No sense of danger flooded into Keith’s veins at the possibility of being hurt; largely, Keith felt numb, like a doll. His own legs dangled in front of his face, ankles kicked his empty surroundings. It was as though his body really had shut down despite him remaining very conscious.

Perhaps, if Keith had not been dissociating, he could have been concerned over this.

The helmet sunk, teased the ground before the lack of gravity let it fall upwards. Next was to get himself and the metal separated, though at this point it felt more like a piece of him than a piece of the Black Lion. Even through the armor, his fingers felt hot touching the metal, just about to burn him. His hands tingled through the work, Keith angled his body this way and that way to get it out of him.

His socket loosened, then released with a satisfying _pop_.

It was over. Thank God.

Rather peacefully, Keith watched his blood curl up into the air. Ignoring the gore, it was pretty, the blood tangling into itself like wisps of smoke. He still bled with the reopened wound and all, so more of his blood surrounded him, hugged his hips and touched the tips of the ceiling. It was warm in contrast to the cold of the Black Lion.

When his chest started to hurt, Keith leaned his head forward to see was breathing in and out extremely quickly. His lungs were strained with the effort like he had been doing this for awhile.

Perhaps if he just

slowed down?

Slowed _way, way, way_  down.

Then it wouldn’t hurt. He could, possibly, somehow, maybe, sleep to this, sleep basked in the warmth. Of his own blood, sure, but at least it kept himself comfortable. If he shut his eyes, really his _eye_ and his _socket_ , then Keith could sleep.

He did black out. In the midst of his blood strung up around his body, a slick, slick hunk of metal with a trail of blood hanging above him, to the sound of his own heartbeat bounding in his chest. Almost out of it, like his heart wanted to join the rest of himself in midair.


End file.
